Australian firms recruiting top engineers from Canada

Jodie Sinnema, Postmedia News05.25.2011

Rupert Merrick, International Sales Director with Working In, poses for a photo outside the Opportunities Australia hiring fair at Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel. Following a similar successful event in Calgary, the Opportunities Australia expo is expected to attract a large number of engineers, miners and oil/gas workers interested in employment in Australia.

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Pam Fines sells Australia as if she were a true Aussie: Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, hikes into the bush, 300 days of sunshine and wine from local wineries to relax after a hard day's work as a geotechnical engineer.

"I loved it down there," said Fines, who worked off and on in Australia between 2004 and 2010, gaining key experience with different types of rocks and climate challenges.

Such international work can boost a resume beyond Alberta's oilsands and glacial geology.

"The people down there have a really good work-life balance. It's a work hard, play hard mentality."

She was visiting Edmonton as a representative of Klohn Crippen Berger, a mining environment group eager to entice engineers and scientists from Alberta to work in the company's Brisbane and Perth locations because of a massive shortage of local workers in the field.

The company is one of about 20 from Australia at a recent job fair, battling internationally for skilled senior workers in the oil, gas and mining industries. A similar fair in Calgary drew 1,600 job seekers, double the number expected. Edmonton's event drew lineups before the doors opened.

"These employers have a bit of a problem. They've got to be proactive and go overseas and try to find highly skilled workers to make up for that domestic shortfall," said Rupert Merrick, organizer of the Opportunities Australia Expo at the Delta Hotel.

He said Western Australia alone needs to find 400,000 more people to move there in the next 10 years to keep up with demand. Currently, the country is short 18,000 engineers.

"Employers are putting ads in papers and working through us back in Australia, but they can't find the workers they need."

So they're spending quite a bit of money to come to Alberta -Calgary and Edmonton were the only Canadian stops this time around -to search for engineers to build schools, bridges and telecommunications towers, as well as geologists and mining engineers, among others.

It's not a mass-recruitment effort to find entry-level workers, but a targeted search for senior talent to work two to four years Down Under.

Companies such as Origin Energy or Rio Tinto Coal Australia will pay the moving costs of a family, supply temporary accommodations, then stock the fridge as a welcoming gesture.

They'll also take care of the four-year work visa.

"You're one of the resource capitals of the world," Merrick said of Alberta. "In terms of skill sets, you guys are world leaders, especially in the oil and gas areas and there's also a great fit with Australians and Canadians."

The problem is, Canada is experiencing its own worker shortage, with Alberta expected to be short 77,000 people in the next 10 years -and that's lowballing the problem, said Thomas Lukaszuk, employment and immigration minister.

New births aren't replenishing the population and baby boomers are expected to retire in record numbers in the next few years.

Lukaszuk said he holds no ill will toward Australia. "That is simply the reality of the world as it is unfolding," he said, adding that Alberta does the same.

"We travel abroad and try to attract workers from other jurisdictions: doctors from the United Kingdom and South Africa, nurses from the Philippines, technical workers from Europe and Asia."

Lukaszuk said the currency to attract workers isn't a higher salary, but a good education system, good healthcare and high quality of life.

"One can surf and snorkel only so much, but we can offer attractions and benefits that don't include sharks, that perhaps are more important," he said.

One man, with 12 years at a Regina refinery, said he and he family are considering a lifestyle change.

"I think that it's a global market," said the man, who didn't want to be identified by his current employer.

"We should be free to explore other opportunities all over the world."

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